I have set up a LAMP server and I have access via SSH and to the "it works" page from a web browser from inside my network (via ip address) and from outside using dyndns.

We have some Wordpress projects that sit in subdirectories in /var/www/wordpress1 /var/www/wordpress2, etc. I cannot access these sub directories from a browser in order to set up WP--or (I assume) to see the content on a browser. I get a 403 Forbidden error on my browser.

I assume that this is a permissions problem. Can you please tell me the proper settings for the permissions to:

Allow the developers and me to read/write.

to allow WP set up and do its thing

Allow visitors to access the site(s) via the web.

I should also mention that the subfolder are actually simlinks to folder on another internal hdd--I don't think this will make a difference, but I thought I should disclose.

I think your problem now is that you are using links. Apache will not follow links. What you would do is move those files to /var/www and configure apache to use vitrualhosts. See help.ubuntu.com/10.04/serverguide/httpd.html Alternates, if you wish to use /hdd/web/wordpress would be to configure Apache (root directory) properly. You can configure apache to use links, but I do not advise it. See also help.ubuntu.com/community/WordPress
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bodhi.zazenJul 12 '12 at 18:37

Check that Apache has execute rights for /hdd/web/media and /hdd/web/wordpress.

Run:

chmod o+x /root /root/site /root/site/about

Moreover, Apache has to be configured to allow access to the directory on the filesystem. This has to be done by a system administrator by inserting a directive in the apache configuration files (httpd.conf).

Since the real directory is inside the web root it must be accessible, but FollowSymLinks may not have been enabled for the directory - this also has to be added to the directive.